Concurrently filed copending patent application Ser. No. 486,471 which is entitled "Inelastic Tunnel Diodes" discloses a new and novel diode which can be used to extract energy from surface plasmons. The subject matter of this patent application is hereby incorporated by reference, although the diode disclosed in the aforementioned patent application is obviously not limited to this use. Reference is made to the patents cited in the copending patent application for a discussion of other prior art structures and techniques of possible interest.
McGrew U.S. Pat. No. 4,204,881 discloses a solar power system in which sunlight is dispersed by a diffraction grating. The separated spectrum is caused to fall upon a series of photocells, each of which is of the highest efficiency with respect to that portion of the spectral waves impinging on it.
Dettling U.S. Pat. No. 4,021,267 also uses different semiconductors for each frequency band to extract energy.